Tapas in Madrid

Hotel Zurbano, Madrid, March 25, 2013—

AFTER TOO MANY meals, let's call them, on airplanes and in airports, we went out tonight, tired but in need of restoration — ah, that's why they call it that! — to a little place down the street, where we had tapas and a bottle of wine. We're with my Australian brother and his Australian wife, who had had an even worse journey, thirty hours all told, Melbourne-Abu Dhabi-Milan Malpensa-Milan Linate-Madrid, and were in even greater need of restauración. We asked for tapas, and were apologetically given a menu only in Spanish along with a plate of jamón,, ordinary Spanish ham, nothing fancy, but tasting faintly of maturity and industry, not the ultra-refined bland sort of ham we'd had under our Eggs Benedict a few hours earlier at Heathrow.
And then a salad of red peppers with tuna bellies, and bacalao croquettes, and young chorizo on toasts, and good bread and decent olive oil and a little salt. I like it here.

Verdejo, Protos (Rueda), 2011: smooth, good color and flavor, nice finish

• Restaurante La Nova, C/ Zurbano 83, Madrid; 914424902